Item 4 on our agenda this afternoon is 90-second statements and the first this week is Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you very much. This week is part of the United Nation’s annual 16 Days of Activism campaign to fight against gender-based violence. The purpose of the campaign is to draw global attention to the huge problem of violence against women by urging action at a local, national and global level to tackle it. The courage and determination of the women who are part of organisations such as #MeToo and Time’s Up have shed light on experiences that are entirely unacceptable. This isn’t simply a problem for Hollywood, of course. One in four women in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse since the age of sixteen. Over 0.5 million women had experienced sexual assault in 2016-17. One in seven students has experienced sexual or physical assault whilst at university.

Let us state clearly and unambiguously today: no woman or girl in Wales should have to live in fear of violence or sexual harassment. For years, silence and stigma have allowed violence against women to continue. In order to end this violence against women and girls in Wales once and for all, we need resources and action immediately and at a sufficient scale to meet the demands. Certainly, we need to support every woman and girl in Wales who has experienced these terrible experiences.

Thank you. Mick Antoniw.

Dirprwy Lywydd, this Saturday, 24 November, Ukraine and the international community mark the day of remembrance of the victims of Stalin's artificial famine of 1932-33 known as the Holodomor, which, in Ukrainian, means 'death by hunger'. As a Welsh parliamentarian, I will be attending the commemoration in Kiev.

It was a famine created by Stalin to enforce collectivisation of agriculture and to break Ukrainian resistance to Russian Soviet rule. There were more than 4,000 uprisings against this policy, which were ruthlessly suppressed. In December 1932 the central committee of the Communist Party ordered that all grain, including sowing seeds, be seized. Villages that failed to co-operate were blacklisted and deliberately starved to death, and an estimated 1 million people deported to Siberia. An estimated 4 million to 6 million perished. It is estimated that around two thirds of these were children. Precise figures are impossible, because Stalin ordered all records to be destroyed.

Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who is honoured in Ukraine, witnessed the Holodomor and was one of the few journalists with the courage to report on the scale of the famine and its causes. Many countries around the world have recognised the Holodomor as an act of genocide. The 9 December this year is the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948. This Saturday, members of the Ukrainian diaspora living in Wales and around the world will place lighted candles in their windows in memory of the victims.

Dai Lloyd.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As the chair of the cross-party group on vision, I am pleased to note that this week sees the launch of the latest Wales Vision Strategy, and I would urge Members to come along to the event in the Oriel between 12 p.m. and 1.30 p.m. tomorrow lunchtime.

Our level of vision has a huge impact on our lives. There are 107,000 people in Wales with sight loss and this is expected to double over the next 20 years. Blind and partially sighted people each face their own set of challenges every day. Feelings of isolation are unacceptably high, and one in four blind or partially sighted people of working age has a job only. 

People with sight loss are more likely to have a fall, are more likely to live in poverty. They are more likely to have depression and have problems with everyday life. We hear of some pretty distressing stories of eyecare patients suffering horrendous delays to their treatment, and delays to follow-up care is a major issue across Wales.

Just recently, in a report by the Wales Audit Office, we heard that 28,000 eye patients were waiting twice as long as they should be for an appointment. This needlessly puts patients at risk of irreversible blindness and needs to be urgently addressed. Now, I'm passionate about making the changes we need, and I would urge members across the Chamber to engage with this agenda so that nobody within their area loses their sight from a treatable eye condition, and that we do all that we can to support people with sight loss.

Thank you very much.